I-405 toll votes

Two votes next week will help determine whether the carpool lanes on I-405 change to toll lanes:

• An OCTA committee is scheduled to vote Monday. The meeting begins at 10:30 a.m.

• The full OCTA board is scheduled to vote the following Friday, Nov. 8. That meeting begins at 9 a.m

• Both meetings are at OCTA headquarters, 550 S. Main St. in Orange.

WESTMINSTER – Politicians and the public took to an open microphone Tuesday to vent their frustration at a proposal that would transform the carpool lanes on I-405 into pay-as-you-go toll lanes.

The Orange County Transportation Authority’s board is scheduled to vote next week on whether to proceed with tolls on the 405. It’s a bitter idea in the cities that front the freeway, which have fought it for years and hosted Tuesday’s public forum to help rally opposition.

“I already pay taxes for my roads,” said Sheila Cools, 73, of Huntington Beach. “I don’t have to be paying a toll to use it as well.”

The proposal headed to an OCTA vote next Friday would eliminate the free carpool lanes on both sides of the 405 in Orange County and replace them with one or two tolled “express” lanes. An initial financial study concluded that it would only pencil out if two-person carpools still had to pay and only three or more people in a car would qualify for a free ride.

In that case, toll lanes could raise up to $1.5 billion over 30 years, OCTA’s financial study said. That’s one motive behind the tolling idea – Caltrans estimates that it comes up $5 billion short every year just for highway maintenance – but it’s not the only one.

California triggered a provision of federal law when it allowed solo drivers of electric cars and other low-emission vehicles to use carpool lanes. That provision means the state could lose transportation funding if it doesn’t get traffic moving better in some of its most-congested carpool lanes.

Those include the lanes on the 405, and Caltrans has made clear that it will consider tolls as one way to manage traffic if the OCTA chooses not to.

That has swayed some OCTA board members, who worry that Orange County will get stuck with tolls either way but will lose control of the revenue if it doesn’t act first. Caltrans owns the freeway and has the final say over what happens to it.

That argument falls flat in the cities that line the freeway and have joined to fight any attempt to charge tolls. They have sent letters and passed formal resolutions of opposition, arguing that tolls on the 405 would hurt their businesses, cost their commuters and worsen traffic in the free lanes.

On Tuesday, around 150 people crowded into a Westminster community room for a public forum on the toll idea. Not one spoke in favor of it. Huntington Beach Councilman Matthew Harper, who also serves on the OCTA board, drew applause when he said: “They’re freeways. Let’s keep them free.”

“It’s very oppressive. It’s a bait and switch, and a few other terms,” said County Supervisor John Moorlach, who also serves on the OCTA board and, like Harper, has voted against tolling. “This is being done to us. It’s not being done with us.”

OCTA board members are scheduled to review the toll idea during a committee hearing Monday, and then vote on it next Friday. “We’ve heard the concerns raised throughout the process,” OCTA spokesman Joel Zlotnik said, “and the board has to balance the issues raised by local residents with the overall needs of Orange County in trying to solve the congestion problem on the 405 freeway.”

Orange County has become an early battleground in a statewide debate over tolling because it plans to spend at least $1 billion to add free lanes to its stretch of the 405. The toll idea has piggybacked on that project, which is being paid for with a half-cent sales tax that voters approved and is scheduled to break ground in 2015.

That project, which will add at least one new lane in each direction, is a foundation of OCTA plans, regardless of how the tolling vote goes.

Commuters travel I-405 freeway near Westminster Blvd. in Westminster. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Commuters travel the I-405 freeway near Westminster Blvd. in Westminster. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Commuters travel the I-405 freeway near Seal Beach Blvd. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Commuters travel southbound on the I-405 freeway near Seal Beach Blvd. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Commuters travel the I-405 freeway near Seal Beach Blvd. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Commuters travel Seal Beach Blvd. near the I-405 freeway. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Commuters travel the I-405 freeway near Seal Beach Blvd. KEN STEINHARDT, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Seth Eaker, a member of the Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce, express concerns about a proposed toll lane that would run along the 405-freeway during a community meeting in Westminster Tuesday evening. JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A panel of leaders from Orange County cities that touch the 405-freeway listen to city councilman Gary A. Miller from Seal Beach express concerns about a proposed toll lane that would run along the 405-freeway during a community meeting in Westminster Tuesday evening. JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A panel of leaders from Orange County cities that touch the 405-freeway listen to county supervisor John Moorlach express concerns about a proposed toll lane that would run along the 405-freeway during a community meeting in Westminster Tuesday evening. JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A panel of leaders from Orange County cities that touch the 405-freeway listen to Ellery A. Deaton, mayor pro tem of Seal Beach, express concerns about a proposed toll lane that would run along the 405-freeway during a community meeting in Westminster Tuesday evening. JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Diana Carey, a member of the Westminster city council, express concerns about a proposed toll lane that would run along the 405-freeway during a community meeting in Westminster Tuesday evening. JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Sherry Sasak, a 37-year resident of Huntington Beach, express concerns about a proposed toll lane that would run along the 405-freeway during a community meeting in Westminster Tuesday evening. JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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